Pushing the envelope with Future Times Records

By Stephanie Glass » Delving into the vibes and minds of a local vinyl-only.

D.C. is a town built on networking. The social minefield of forming connections is something our residents love traversing, especially during Happy Hour deals at The Front Page. One nexus that was built and now thrives in the hallowed streets of D.C. is not chock full of political social climbers, but instead encompasses two laid-back gentlemen. These gents, Andrew Field-Pickering and Mike Petillo, pooled their talent and interests together to create the progressive house/electronic/tropical (I could probably list about ten more adjectives describing the myriad of sound emerging from this label, but I’ll spare you) label Future Times.

Amongst bowls of pho I chatted with Field-Pickering and Petillo about their vinyl-only label and learned all about Future Times’ formation and the vibe put forth in their forward pushing beats. Besides running the label, both Petillo and Field-Pickering also produce the majority of the label’s material. Petillo is part of Protect-U and Field-Pickering is one half of Beautiful Swimmers. The two originally meet in early 2000’s through mutual friends and D.C. music connections. 

“There was the Dischord-era and then there were some people who did the slightly weird side projects. Some of us would set up shows for the smaller level electronic-y, noisy kind of bands. We would do it at different venues and stuff. We just crossed paths hanging out,” recounts Petillo. Jokingly interjecting Field-Pickering clarifies “I didn’t put a thing in the City Paper looking for a handsome label associate.”

Future Times’ inaugural record was a 7-inch of Field-Pickering’s solo project Maxmillon Dunbar, recorded and produced in 2008 by Field-Pickering. A little bit after his first foray into the recording world, he and Petillo came up with the idea of doing an actual label. “He [Andrew] had done his record and we were literally on a bus going to New York just shooting the shit. Our friend Jason had emailed us some songs we had just made and we were both like ‘yeah those songs are really good.' He [Andrew] was like ‘yeah maybe I should put them out, maybe there should be a label.’ There wasn’t too much foresight.”

Since that fateful bus ride back in 2008, Future Times has built a growing presence both in D.C. and outside of it. In 2010 the label put forth Brooklyn-based Slava’s 12-inch, “Dreaming Tiger/World of Spirits”, and although they’ve crossed state lines, Future Times retains an extremely personal feel.

“There has been nothing yet that been a straight-out random person all the way that we’ve put out.” clarifies Field-Pickering. Petillo also modestly explains, “ninety-five percent of the stuff we’ve put out has been something one of us has been involved in.”

Although mixing the artistic side with the more pragmatic side at times can become stressful, as Petillo points out, “we get too deep into it and it’s harder sometimes to make decisions. You’ve got to write a little description of this record and it’s my music. You over think things a lot. Now we are at a point where things kind of take a life of its own. It’s a little easier now to detach ourselves from it. A lot of times I am thinking of something just as a record coming out as opposed to something I’ve actually done.”

Petillo, alongside Aaron Leitko make up the dance ready electronic Protect-U. The duo’s seven-minute track “Double Rainbow” off of their debut 12-inch garnered much attention these last few months on the blogosphere.

Protect-U recently released their sophomore 12-inch World Music/U-Uno, which received some visual attention from friend Aurora Halal of Innergaze in her video for the B-side “U-Uno”. The video matches the song’s tribal beats and shimmering synths and interlaces shots of the Egyptian pyramids with colors melting across the screen. “U-Uno” produces more of a pounding then “Double Rainbow”, making it the perfect track bounce off the walls of a warehouse somewhere.  

Field-Pickering has long had his hand in the experimental scene, originally cutting his teeth with Maryland-based avant-garde hip-hop/electronic-influenced group Food For Animals. “I’ve always had an interest in electronic music, even when I was younger. Not the same type of dance and house now, but Apex Twin and World Records type of thing that was available to me at the time. Going backwards through all that stuff you find all the influences.” Search and discover is an interest Field-Pickering has honed well. Along with Ari Goldman, they make up the funk laced Beautiful Swimmers whose tracks boast a plethora of varying sample that they uncover in thrift and record stores in both the D.C. metro area and beyond.

Beautiful Swimmers' samples, like the continual whistle that begins “Swimmers Groove”, seamlessly produce a forward-looking funky sound that recalls dance music from decades past while still maintaining a fresh contemporality. Europe has taken note of Beautiful Swimmers' dance appeal, HHV.de, an online-based German music community named the horn popping “Big Coast” their "number one" track of 2010.

Although Future Times sound is enjoyed across the Atlantic, D.C. electronic fans are treated to the label’s envelope-pushing sounds on a monthly basis thanks to “The Whale.” This multi-faceted DJ night originally occurred in small restaurants around town, but has now safely found a home at D.C.’s newest and only electronic/dance focused venue, U Street Music Hall. The basement locale, with its sparse decorating scheme of black walls, limited seating, and an exceptional sound system, make it a prodigious spot for “The Whale” to showcase its creative beats.

Besides monthly dance nights and shows around the east coast, Future Times plans in the upcoming months to release “Vibe 2” a compilation record that follows up 2009’s “Vibe 1.” At the moment though Field-Pickering and Petillo enjoy taking the label at their own pace (although their pace seems fairly ambitious). Field-Pickering determines with a laugh that “it’d be cool to have it grow and all that stuff. And it has grown in its own way, but it is still not at the level where I have to pull my hair out.”

Posted on March 30, 2011. More on: future times, protectu, beautiful swimmers, andrew fieldpickering, mike petillo, maxmillon dunbar, innergaze, embryonic capitol